In the past, my district has had our 1st and 2nd graders take the TerraNova test. This year, 1st grade is switching to NJ Pass (since it's supposedly more like the NJ ASK, which the 3rd and 4th graders take). Has anyone given this exam to their students? If so, are there any resources available to prepare students? :help:
Your first graders take a state test? I am in NJ, too, and I know our 2nd grades will be doing the NJ Pass but we know nothing about the test at this point.
We stopped testing our 1st and 2nd graders. Thank goodness! I teach a tested grade, which stresses me out. Now if my students get any main idea or summarizing questions wrong I'm going to cry. We work on this EVERY DAY for the state tests.
My second graders take the NJ PASS, but the first graders in our school don't take it. It is more like the NJ ASK than the Terra Novas. I know the 2nd grade test is basically the same exact format as the NJ ASK, but for some reason we still have a picture prompt on our test while the NJ ASK no longer has one. It seems silly to me that we are teaching our students to write to a picture for so long, and then suddenly they don't see it any more when they go to 3rd grade. Anyway, I haven't found any resources available to purchase to help prepare the students for this test. The only thing we have is something that came with our new math series. But if it helps any, this is what's on the 2nd grade test: listening comprehension, reading comprehension (fiction and nonfiction) with multiple choice and open-ended answers, writing to a poem prompt, writing to a picture prompt, and the math section has many multiple choice and open-ended answers. I'm really not sure what the first grade test would be like though. Our test is the same exact one every year. I keep wondering if it will change at all. If I find out about any changes to the test (like changing the picture prompt) I'll post again.
I've given it We also use it for the same reasons as you said. I have given the level 12 test in the fall of second grade and the level 23 in the spring. I don't know if it has been revised but it aligned with the old version of NJ ASK, not the revamped version. The 12 test is mostly read to the students. I believe there is one passage that the kids read. The 23 version has one straight computation problem (most are part of "word problems" that are read to the class. There are several elapsed time questions on level 23. My second graders have trouble with those. Most of them don't get elapsed time, no matter how much time I spend on it. We used to use it to show growth. The teachers kept trying to explain that if you are using two different levels, it doesn't show growth over the course of the year. We are now giving level 12 in the spring of grade 1 and level 23 in the spring of grade 2.
Thank you so much LAH2 and Bonnie gr. 2! At least now I have some sort of an idea of what might be on the test.
